Am J Psychiatry 1979; 136:796-799
Copyright © 1979 by American Psychiatric Association
Objective personality changes in residents of a therapeutic community
JG Sacks and NM Levy
The authors tested several groups of drug-abusing young adults who were
residents of a drug-free therapeutic community. Three instruments were
used: staff ratings, sociometric ratings by members of the community, and
MMPI scores. All three measures showed objective evidence of decreasing
psychopathology correlated with length of time in treatment, demonstrating
the effectiveness of the therapeutic community in the rehabilitation of
drug abusers. Individuals who left before completing treatment had MMPI
scores indicating inability to develop social relationships; this
elucidates a probable cause of the dropout phenomenon.
